The Dragon Hunter
by kurgaya
Summary: Light IchiHitsu - pure fluff - oneshot - After agreeing to babysit the young Abarai son for the night, Ichigo learns out the hard way that he should never place an innocent prank idea into a child's brain. And poor Toshiro receives the consequences.


**Note: **I needed to write something adorable :) Thanks for my beta, HimaRules, for checking this.

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><p><strong>The Dragon Hunter<strong>

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><p>"Uncle Ichi, Uncle Ichi!"<p>

The door to his office slid open after the thud, the knock, and the chuckled, "Careful now," and the long-lived taicho of the fifth division set down his chipped, worn brush and greeted the buzzing child and his mother with a smile befitting the Gods.

"Heya Daisuke," Ichigo said happily, getting up from his chair and grounding himself as the raven haired boy threw himself at his youngest uncle. Daisuke Abarai gave a bubbly laugh into the man's leg, wrapping his little arms as far around the slender waist as he could as his mother shut the door and joined the conversation in a much politer manner.

"Thank you for agreeing to look after him, Ichigo," said Rukia, fiddling with the braid of her hair hanging over her shoulder. "Renji and I should be back by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Ichigo scooped the squealing five year old into his arms with an exaggerated cry, grinning madly when the boy echoed his enthusiasm. "No probs, Rukia, we're happy for him to spend the night with us. Has he got everything he needs?"

At these words Rukia held out the small rucksack she was carrying, giving her friend a look that clearly stated he had to be joking. The man blushed and took the bag, knowing he had asked a stupid question even when Daisuke started to belittle him for it.

"_Course_ we've got everything Uncle Ichigo! Mummy did the packing this time,_ not Daddy_!"

"I can tell," replied Ichigo, testing the bag's weight in his hands. "Have you brought your whole room with you or something?"

Daisuke laughed, denying the accusation with a childish "Don't be_ silly_!" The light tap to Ichigo's sunny mop of hair was added for good measure, though Ichigo guessed it was meant to be his punishment for being an idiot.

Seeing that her son was in good hands (not that she ever had a doubt at Ichigo's parenting abilities) Rukia decided she must be on her way. "Daisuke honey, you be good for Ichigo, okay?"

Realizing that she was bidding him farewell the child squirmed in Ichigo's hold, reaching for a hug from his mother. "I'll be on my _best_ behaviour!" he promised, kissing her swiftly on the cheek as if afraid to get the cooties but not wanting to break any embedded tradition. "Uncle Ichigo won't even know I'm here!"

The pair of adults had no trouble expressing their doubts, but because Daisuke was only five he missed their expressions and continued to grin.

"What about Uncle Tōshirō?" Rukia asked her son softly, patting him on the head. "He is, after all, a_ dragon_."

Daisuke thought about it for a moment, weighing up the odds of him being able to remain silent and hidden in the presence of a great beast. "I dunno Mummy..." he said finally, slowly as he continued to ponder. "Uncle Tōshirō's really really ob - ob - er..."

"Observant," supplied Ichigo, mentally agreeing with the child in his arms. "He is, Daisuke, but perhaps with my help you may be able to sneak up on him. We might make a good team."

This cheered up the boy tremendously, so much so that he was still grinning madly over the prospect of scaring a dragon that he hugged his mother goodbye without any second doubts and returned immediately to his Uncle's hold in the hopes of forming a battle plan clever enough that even the mastermind of the tenth division wouldn't be able to understand it.

It was wishful thinking, but neither adult was going to tell him that.

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><p>Hours later found Ichigo stacking his completed paperwork together in neat piles on the edge of his desk, his back and shoulders aching with every movement and his fingers almost permanently bent forward, holding an imaginary brush. With a grateful sigh he bound the stacks with string and then summoned a Hell Butterfly, before kicking back his chair and swinging his feet up onto the desk.<p>

Now for a break._ Finally_.

Daisuke had been sent off with his ninth seat some hours ago to go and play his favourite new game, 'lets terrorize Uncle Ichi's officers' and even though the young child had been perfectly okay with spending the morning in the care of somebody other than his uncle, Ichigo still felt guilty about sending him away. He knew he shouldn't really, because Rukia had asked him to babysit at the very last minute and so his day's paperwork had no time to be completed, but he had been given the job of amusing a five year old for a day and a bit and not being with the boy was a clear sign that he was doing something wrong.

His shameful musings were cut off at that point, however, for somebody knocked on his door asking for entrance. He granted it without really thinking (most people just barged in) and his trustworthy tenth seat bowed after taking a couple of steps into the room. "You called for me, taicho?"

Ichigo waved his hand dismissively, trying to expel the air of formality in the room. "Thanks for getting here so quick Sora," he said to the man. "Can you do me a favour and take all this - " he indicated to the paperwork on his desk " - to the first please? I know it's not really your job but..."

"Sure thing taicho," said Sora with a nod, walking forward to collect the piles. "Is that all?"

"No, actually. Have you seen ninth seat Kiyomi around? She's looking after my nephew."

The look that fluttered across the man's tanned face was a terrible cross between amusement and horror, and Ichigo wasn't sure what to expect in the answer he was about to get. "Um, yeah, taicho. Last I saw of them they were in the training grounds watching some of the new recruits..."

Ichigo rose an eyebrow. "The training grounds?" he parroted, trying not to let his temper get the best of him. "What on earth has she taken him _there_ for?"

Sora cringed nervously. "I'm sorry taicho, I didn't think to stop and ask." He held the paperwork at chest level, a make-shift shield against his taicho's famous fiery anger, and Ichigo took a deep breath upon noticing.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm not angry at you. I'm just - you go and deliver that and I'll go and find Kiyomi."

The officer nodded and dismissed himself just seconds before the taicho gave a huff and shunpoed to the training grounds. His nephew was there when he arrived, but sitting in the stands with his patient caretaker he was not. Instead he was sitting on the shoulders of one of the new recruits (whose name Ichigo had yet to catch), giggling and laughing as he pointed and commanded the group of officers into doing what he wanted.

It was the strangest training session Ichigo had ever seen.

There was no sight of _sharp metal_ zanpakutos which was good, though Ichigo knew that Daisuke was forbidden from touching them anyway, and instead there were wooden practice swords attached to his officers' sides. They were still out of reach of the child, despite being significantly less dangerous than their counterpart, but the fact that his men had _some_ sense put part of the screaming alarm inside of his head at ease.

With this in mind he wandered into the room slowly, stuffing his hands into his pockets to keep his officers calm once they noticed him. Or at least as calm as they could be with their taicho in the room.

Funnily enough it was Daisuke who noticed him first, but that probably shouldn't have be funny when the six other people in the room (minus himself and Daisuke) were full-fledged shinigami.

"Uncle Ichigo!"

A round of surprised calls from the new recruits followed this shout but Daisuke ignored them all and waved happily to the taicho making his way across the room. Ichigo smiled at the display and greeted his best friends' son before turning to his subordinates. They all bowed as one, though the lad with Daisuke on his shoulders gave his best attempt, welcoming him and asking if there was anything they could do for him.

"Nope," he said simply. "I heard that Daisuke was in the training grounds and I was worried, but he appears to be in good hands." He sent a warning stare over to Kiyomi and she blushed in embarrassment, ducking her head.

"Yes taicho!" the new recruits agreed, glad that they had been deemed worthy enough to have been placed with their superior officer's trust.

"So then," Ichigo went on, glancing around quickly to scan the area. "What exactly _have_ you been doing in here?"

A couple of the officers exchanged nervous glances and Kiyomi's face darkened a shade. Daisuke looked positively delighted at the question and began to wave his arms around to attract the attention back to him. "We've been working hard Uncle Ichi," he explained with a serious nod of his head. "Ken-san and Norio-san have been helping me come up with a plan - "

Uh-oh. Ichigo knew where this was going.

" - for sneaking up on Uncle Tōshirō! And then Akira-san and - and Yoshie-san and Sakura-san have been giving me tips on how to be quiet and swift like an _actual shinigami_! Kiyomi-san has been great too - she's been watching us to make sure we stay out of trouble because she knew you wouldn't like it if I got into trouble." He trailed off momentarily to catch his breath yet began his explanation almost as soon as it had ended. "It's been so much fun! Uncle Tōshirō is never going to be able to escape us now, right Uncle Ichigo? Right?"

Realizing far too late that he should have never, ever planted the mischief seed into his nephew's head, Ichigo smiled and nodded along with the tumble of words. "Sounds great Daisuke," he said, and the child beamed in pride at the praise. "I'm finished with my work now so how about we head home and have some lunch? I'm sure you're hungry."

Daisuke nodded. Some of the officers nodded too. Ichigo smiled and reached for the boy, wondering whether or not he should inform his husband of the 'dragon hunting' quest he seemed to be on, and warn him that he may be stepping into dangerous territory when he arrived home that evening.

Seeing the unbelievable grin on Daisuke's little face however, Ichigo decided against it. It would be more fun when Tōshirō wasn't prepared.

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><p>At ten to five that evening, Ichigo felt his husband's chilling reiatsu leave his office at the tenth division. Considering Tōshirō's was the only reiatsu he could safely say he could locate and identify without any difficulty whatsoever, he was fairly sure that now was the time to be setting up their master plan.<p>

It wasn't really all that much, in the end. Their initial idea had been extremely complicated, involving Kusajishi-fukutaicho, ribbon, and cheese, and so while in the process of making cupcakes for dessert that evening, Daisuke had asked, very nicely for somebody who had asking for trouble, if they could possibly have a flour fight once the kitchen was clear.

Ichigo wasn't sure who had then gone on to come up with the idea of ambushing 'the dragon' once he arrived home, but the idea was magnificent and their hunt was back up and running.

"How much flour should I use?"

Ichigo dumped the kitchen utensils into the sink and turned around at the question; Daisuke was sitting at the table with a large mixing bowl of flour in front of him, his hands gripping the sides of the bowl as he peered up at his uncle in confusion.

"Just take a couple of hand fulls - bit more than that - and be sure to time your shoots carefully," said Ichigo, nodding when Daisuke gathered up some of the flour. "Remember now, you've got to force him into the kitchen so I can attack him from the front."

"How much flour are you going to use?"

Now standing by the table, Ichigo looked thoughtfully into the bowl. "I dunno, what do you think?" He scooped up a large handful, much larger than one of Daisuke's, and ignored the fact that most of it ended up on the floor. "This much?"

The boy bit his bottom lip, staring hard at his uncle's hands. "Bit more?" he asked cheekily, blushing. "He is, after all, a dragon."

Ichigo grinned, piling some more flour into his hands. Tōshirō was nearing home, so they'd better make a decision quickly. "This much then?"

Daisuke narrowed his eyes as if calculating how much 'damage' they were going to do with the flour they had. He then looked at the bowl, still pretty full for later use, and then back at his uncle. "Why don't you use the whole lot Uncle Ichigo?"

It was the least innocent question Ichigo had ever heard asked in the most innocent way, and he found himself with a grin expanding onto his face. "Daisuke, you are a _genius_."

His only hope was that Tōshirō was in a good mood.

"Come on," he said, feeling their target close in. "Lets get into our positions."

Daisuke nodded, picked up some more flour, and scurried towards the front door. Ichigo remained in the kitchen with floury hands and a floury bowl but moved across the room so that he was hidden from immediate sight. The 'click' of the front door opening signalled the beginning of their quest, and Daisuke readied himself, raising his arm to -

"I'm home! Is Daisuke - ?" _FWUMP_.

"CHARGE!"

The five year old jumped out from one of the doorways in the hallway, armed with as much flour as he could possibly carry, and shouting at the top of his lungs in an attempt to get his uncle moving he bolted towards the wide eyed, gaping dragon.

It took all of four seconds for Tōshirō to do the logical thing.

He ran.

_FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP._

"Ichigo! Ichigo! _What_ is going - ?"

"HE'S GETTING AWAY, HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

_FWUMP FWUMP._

Tōshirō turned, almost tripping over his own feet, into the nearest room in the hopes of escaping the onslaught he was receiving from his nephew; he ducked, a rather brilliantly aimed ball of flour zoomed right over his head, he caught sight of the delicate pattern on his husband's red evening kimono, looked up, and then skidded to a halt as realization of the situation dawned on him.

There was Ichigo, above him, balancing on one of the kitchen chairs, with a huge bowl in his hands and a terrifying grin on his face.

"_Oh no_ - Ichigo _don't_ - !"

"YES!" screamed Daisuke, pumping his fist into the air as his ginger uncle tipped the bowl of flour over Tōshirō's head, laughing manically as he did. "WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!"

Ichigo was laughing. Daisuke was laughing. Tōshirō was standing in the middle of the kitchen looking like a drowned snowman.

For some reason Daisuke's visits always seemed to end up like that.

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><p><strong>End Note:<strong> Thanks for reading! I hope you smiled as much as I did :P


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